The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked.

For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable.

What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

After reading 2014’s Under Locke and 2015’s Kulti, I knew I enjoyed Mariana Zapata’s shit.

But after reading this one I am officially so fucking #TeamZapata #TeamAiden #TeamMuscledHunkofSexyManMeat #RidiculousInstagram-likeParagraphofIdioticHastags that I’m going to make up myown nationally organized sport league (cause you know NFL…NFO…who even cares) activity I shall hereafter refer to as…

…drum roll please…

STEALTH CHASE

Or perhaps…

But we don’t let felonies get us down here at the Stealth Chase Organization.

And at least in prison we could have unlimited Zapata reading time.

Anyprisonrape, if you aren’t familiar with Zapata’s work, bear this in mind:

***Pay attentions smut scalers***

Zapata’s books are very slow burn. In fact, some might consider them plain slow moving as a whole, especially considering the smexy times are always a looooong time coming (haha! pun!).

Now this is usually a HUGE problem for me.

I have no shame in my game, so I will plainly state:

1) As I get older, I seem to have the attention span of a fruit fly.

I swear I’m like Benjamin Fucking Button, maturity-wise. I get more childish the older I get. Life’s too short. So slower reads are not usually my bag.

2) I get blue balls in my girls parts like a priest at a Playboy party if I don’t get any smexy times by the 50% mark.

Which makes me, well, cue tantrum.

But with Zapata – especially in this one – the trade-off is SO worth it.

The richness of this story is so hard to explain and the time she takes to build the relationship between Aiden and Vanessa makes it so beautiful.

Also, even though the pace of the story is slow, it doesn’t feelslow. Something about the way Zapata writes makes it seemlike really big stuff is happeneing during really small moments – because it is.

I remember reading a scene where Aiden is holding Vanessa in his lap and the way Zapata wrote about how his arms hung over her thighs and his hands wrapped around her knees had me fucking enthralled. Honestly, I found that scene (and other scenes in this book) more sensual than 90% of the sex scenes I’ve read. And you know I’ve read a-fucking-LOT of those.

Something I also love about Zapata’s writing style (which others might not) is that she only gives the h’s POV. We never get Aiden’s POV.

And I dig it.

It made him so enigmatic and interesting that it made this story even richer for me in much the same way that the details and the pacing does. You have to read to get to know the characters. You have to read to get to the love story. It’s not handed to you within 50 pages, there is no insta-ANYTHING.

It’s almost like you have to earn it in Zapata’s books. And, like anything in life, the things you earn are the things you appreciate the most. And you seriously appreciate this love story by the time you get to end.

I adored this book and I adore Zapata’s writing style. Everything is shown to you. Not told. And to me that’s the sign of a truly talented author. She has easily become one of my top authors and I will forever hereafter be the front runner in the Stealth Chase games to stalk her whenever she releases anything new.

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DUDE!

I have seen this bad boy ALL over my newsfeed. But because of the kinda wackadoo title, I didn’t pay much attention. Until I finally clicked on it to see what all the fuss was about and realized…

Because it’s by the awesome Mariana Zapata. And sounds fucking awesome.